Christmas Lights, shivering and Shiver

Roadie #42 - Blog #125

17 Dec 2010

Bloody HECK, but it’s been busy.

I’d forgotten what it’s like when they release a record. I’ve experienced 3 album launch campaigns with this band and I swear that the mind blocks out the memories. It’s only as your brain starts to feel as though it’s doing the wall of death round the inside of your skull that the vague recollections become somewhat disturbing flashbacks. I could moan about mountains of email and exploding to-do lists, but frankly nobody likes a whiner. And besides, there are more interesting things going on.

So yes, there’s a new Coldplay song out in the world. (Although this feels like an album launch in terms of the amount of stuff we’ve had to get done, it is just a one-off.) The video shoot already feels like a lifetime ago. Recollections of that night include (in no particular order): Rather a lot of shivering, realising that Simon Pegg is quite possibly even funnier in person than on the telly and getting a constant stream of amusing texts from my colleagues on the boat full of fans. (“We’re doing Coldplay Karaoke! Frida is nailing Yellow…”).

As I say – it was a certainly a cold one that night. Here’s a few photos I got whilst I snuck into the trailer to see if I could get some feeling back in my fingers…

Today we are set up in a rehearsal room getting ready for the Christmas shows in Liverpool and Newcastle. We’ve been here a couple of days already without the band, scratching our heads and pondering exactly how everything used to fit together. It’s been a very pleasant couple of days getting re-acquainted both with the equipment and more importantly the wonderful crew family. As ever, the arrival of the band steps the urgency level up several notches as it’s time to give the setlist a good thrashing and prove that it is all going to work.

The band arrive bright and early, swinging into the set right away. Inevitably there are more smiles raised at getting things wrong than there are getting them right, but the first run through is gratifyingly reassuring.

As much as anything else, getting from the beginning of the set to the end is a stress reliever for everyone concerned. After most of a year off the road, the doubts as to whether you can actually hold your end of things up the way you used to are natural. Pretty soon though, it all falls back into place. One noisy and excitable run through is all that’s required to decide that it’ll be fine. After all, there is such a thing as being over-rehearsed…

Ever the multi-taskers, the band decide to head back to the studio – there’s an album to finish, after all. Whilst they’re waiting for a car though, Chris and Jonny did have time to blow the cobwebs off this one: